Wisdom IV

“There are difficulties in everything except in eating pancakes, and nobody ought to be expected to untie all the knots in a net, or to make that straight which God has made crooked. He is the greatest fool of all who pretends to explain everything, and says he will not believe what he cannot understand.” C.H. Spurgeon

The folly of man’s wisdom is presumption. Presuming to be possessors of all information, or at least having the ability to obtain all info, thus becoming wise. Man’s wisdom believes empirical data is the pinnacle of knowledge. Assuming human senses are suited to evaluate all data and categorize it as truth — untying the riddles of the universe one knot at a time. Man refuses belief in what he cannot understand. Even in the limits of human experience, so often mankind lives as though humanity possessed a bead on omniscience, rather than humbly conceding to the Lord of all.

The words of C.H. Surgeon ring true today. Man cannot understand all that there is to understand nor should we try. Being all wise is an impossibility for mankind. No matter how many political ad campaigns pronounce our innate ability to overcome, or how many new age well wishers pronounce the same, humanity is deeply flawed and limited.

Praise be to God, even in the languishing plight of humanity, there is hope. God’s wisdom is not a secret. While it is not through wisdom that we know God, it is nevertheless by God’s wisdom that we come to know God. When it comes to tapping the source of all wisdom and knowledge science can never help mankind. It is only through what man calls folly, mythology, or religious folklore that man will come to a place of true wisdom and knowledge. “21 For since, in the wisdom of God, the world did not know God through wisdom, it pleased God through the folly of what we preach to save those who believe. 22 For Jews demand signs and Greeks seek wisdom, 23 but we preach Christ crucified, a stumbling block to Jews and folly to Gentiles, 24 but to those who are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God.” 1 Corinthians 1:21–24